


The Burdens That We Carry

by alecsangel (angel)



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-03-31
Updated: 2006-03-06
Packaged: 2017-11-23 23:37:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/627798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel/pseuds/alecsangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Burdens was a bit of an experiment.  These are short chapters showing glimpses of Max and Alec's future together.  They share things they've never shared before... but you are warned - it does not have a happy ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Loss of a Brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the end of Hello/Goodbye, Max tells Alec about Ben. I didn't like the way that the show did it, so I took matters into my own hands.

Alec looked down at his hands, unsure of how to broach the topic on his mind. He had always been curious about X5-493, but he'd never had anyone to ask the questions that often filled his head. He knew that his request would hurt her because her unit had been much closer than his. Ben was like a brother to her. Deciding that it was now or never, he spoke.

 

"Listen, since we're already knee-deep in painful subjects. Tell me about him. About Ben." He looked up to see shock and anguish pass over her face. She didn't nod or anything to acknowledge that he had spoken. Then she started to speak.

"When we were kids back at Manticore, he always wanted answers for everything. You know? Why we were there, what was outside. So he would make up these fantastic stories to explain things. Somehow it made us feel...loved. Like we weren't all alone. One of our brothers, Jack, had a seizure one night and the janitor gave him a picture of the Virgin Mary, dressed in blue. We didn't know who or what she was, but Ben took the picture and made up a story about her, about the Blue Lady. We couldn't speak of her or anything around the guards or the instructors so we found a way to get onto the roof. We called it the High Place. That's where we praised her, more for Ben's sake than anything else. He said that we had to make her strong so that she could protect us, so we used to take our teeth and place them at the shrine that we had made for her. Ben said that they would make her strong and none of us, not even Zack, questioned him."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "Then, one night, I had a seizure and, to protect me, we ran and escaped. We all thrown into a world that we didn't understand. Some of us found people to take us in and some of us had to fend for themselves. Eventually, Ben snapped. I guess there were too many things in this world he didn't have answers for. Too many things that he couldn't just explain away in his mind. He felt like the Blue Lady was losing faith in him and he thought that he knew how to make her love him again. He started killing people and pulling out their teeth to take to the Lady.

"Finally, he showed up here in Seattle and I knew that I had to stop him. I tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't listen. He had kidnaped a priest and was going to kill him like he had killed the others. He tattooed a bar code on the back of their necks and gave them a weapon and let them loose in the woods. When we were kids, Manticore had given us the task of hunting down a man, a criminal, in the woods. We killed him because he had a tattoo that went against Ben's stories of the Lady. Ben was recreating that exercise every time he killed someone. He loved the thrill of the chase because that's why we were made. To be hunters, killers. That's what he told me. He was doing what we were made to do."

She was openly sobbing now and Alec had rounded to counter and taken her in his arms. He held her tightly and was about to tell her that she could stop, when she started to speak once more.  
"I caught up with him before he could kill the priest. We fought and I hurt him. I broke his leg. Manticore was closing in on us and I couldn't carry him out fast enough. He asked me to kill him. He didn't want to go back to Manticore. I asked him to tell me about the Good Place from his stories and while he was laying in my arms, I broke his neck. Then I just left his body there for them to take away and I ran. I saved myself."

"Max, I'm sorry." Alec didn't know what to say. He hadn't expected that Max had killed Ben. He didn't know what he had expected but it hadn't been this. He continued to hold her in his arms as she continued to sob.

Several minutes later, she pulled away and wiped the tears away from her face. She gave a half-hearted laugh and turned to the stove to check on their coffee. "I think it's done," she said, holding up the pot to show him that the liquid inside had almost completely evaporated.

 

"We didn't need the caffeine anyway." He said softly. "We need some sleep. I'll crash on the sofa."

"Alec," she said as he was walking toward her couch. "Thanks for being here. It helped."

"No, thank you for saving my butt, again." He paused, but decided that he needed to say this now. It was something else that he wondered about and it was important to him to know the answer. "Must be hard, huh? Having me around? Some guy with Ben's face, making you think about things you'd rather forget?"

"Sometimes." She replied honestly. "It's probably why I'm such a bitch to you so much."

"Could be. Or it could be that I'm such a pain in the ass sometimes." He smiled at her and she couldn't help but smile back at him.

"You know, there are so many differences between you and Ben. Everyday I find another one and everyday the fact that you're twins gets further from my mind."

"That's good to hear." Alec said, truthfully. "We all have things we'd rather forget, Max. Burdens that we carry with us and that are always in the back of our minds. Don't forget that."

She nodded at him as he lay down on the couch and closed his eyes. His statement made her wonder what kind of burdens Alec carried. She knew that he had been in love and it had ended in tragedy, but how many other things did Alec keep inside himself. She'd have to ask him one day, when the time was right. But now, it was time for sleep. Alec's deep, even breathing told her that he'd already drifted off and she quietly covered him with a blanket.


	2. The Loss of a Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the anniversary of a death, Alec reveals his pain to Max.

~~! Terminal City ~ October 21, 2021 !~~

Max ran swiftly through the cold, fall rain on her way to Alec's apartment. No one had seen him today and that was weird. The transgenics were currently engaged in peace talks with the government and Alec was always at the command center, in case he was needed. Hell, the old couch that someone had thrown into the corner of headquarters had become his bed over the past few months.

She darted inside his apartment building and climbed the stairs to the top floor. Approaching his door, she twisted the knob to find it locked. Now she was getting worried. Alec never locked his door. Dropping to her knees, she had the lock picked and the door open in seconds.

She stood in the doorway and adjusted her eyes to the darkness inside. Moonlight streamed through the windows and silhouetted Alec's figure leaning against the far wall. He was staring out the window and he gave no indication that he knew she was in the room.

"Hey, why was the door locked?" Max asked, closing the door behind her and moving toward him.

"I didn't want company." He replied, his voice low, but her sensitive hearing caught the shakiness of it.

"Oh," was all she said as she rounded the couch to take a seat on it. Glass crunched under her feet and she looked down to see the remains of what looked like three Scotch bottles and a tumbler. He must have thrown them at the wall to the right of the couch.

She looked up and tilted her head in concern. "What's wrong, Alec?"

"Do you know what today is?" He asked, still not moving, not so much as turning to look at her.

"October 21."

"Do you know who's tombstone that's written on?" His voice had turned cold, but she wasn't afraid of him. She stepped closer and he held up a hand to keep her away. She reached out for it as she neared him.

He jerked at her touch, but found his body shaking as he tried so hard not to cry as he once again thought of Rachel.

"Tell me about her." Max whispered, taking his reluctant body into her arms and holding him as he sobbed.

He shook his head and sank to the floor, taking Max with him. His choked cries were the only sound in the apartment for several minutes. Max held him, stroking his back, as he let out the pain that he'd kept inside for so long.

When he quieted, she wiped the tears off of his face and met his gaze with love and compassion. They had grown so close since she had told him about Ben and their months in Terminal City had only strengthened their bond. They were now the best of friends, even though they each secretly thought the other was hot.

Alec sighed. He knew, in his heart, that he could trust Max with his memories and his feelings about Rachel. It was just hard for him to talk about things that we so personal to him. But Max had told him about Ben and he knew it had been hard for her to talk about her brother. He saw her lips move as she prepared to speak, but he quickly laid a finger against them to stop her.

"It started out just like any other mission. I was briefed on the target, Robert Berrisford. Manticore thought that he had information that would be destructive to them and I was sent in to see exactly what kind of information he had. I was given the cover of Simon Lehane, a new piano teacher for Berrisford's daughter, Rachel. She was so beautiful when I first laid eyes on her. She had long brown hair and beautiful eyes. She bounced around all the time, so full of energy and life."

He shook his head and rubbed his hand across his face. Tears welled up in his eyes again as he turned to stare out the window again. "I got the information that Manticore wanted off of Berrisford's computer and I took it to them. They decided that they needed to send a message to all their suppliers who may have been thinking of acquiring such information. They ordered me to kill Berrisford and Rachel. They knew that he drove her to school in the morning and I was supposed to do it then.

"But I couldn't. I couldn't kill her. I loved her. I stopped her on her way down the stairs and tried to get her to leave. I told her the truth about why I was there and she ran away from me screaming. There was so much hurt and disgust in her eyes, but I chased after her anyway. When I got to the car, it blew up from the charges I had set under it. I hadn't hit the switch, but as a black SUV pulled down into the driveway, I knew that Manticore had. They had killed her.

"They took me back to the base and put me through Psy Ops. They tried to make me forget and they succeeded for a while until we went to the Berrisfords to deliver that package. The memories came back to me slowly, but soon I remembered everything."

He took a deep, shuddering breath and Max pulled him into a tight embrace. "I'm so sorry, Alec." She said, unsure of what to say, like he had been after she had told him about Ben.

"What hurts the most," He said, pulling back from her, "is that she didn't love Alec or even 494. She loved Simon Lehane and she never knew the difference."

"No, Alec. She did know the difference. You are who you are, no matter what name you use. She knew the real you. Don't ever think that she didn't love you because you went by a different name." Fresh tears made their way down his face and Max could do nothing but hold him.

Emotionally exhausted, Alec fell asleep a while later. Max gently lowered him to the floor and curled up beside him, intent on staying with him until she knew that he was alright. She hoped that she had helped to lessen his burden, like he had done for her. She wrapped her arms around him, laid her head on his muscled chest, and slipped into a deep sleep, content to be with him.


	3. The Loss of Innocence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max reveals the details of the '09 escape to Alec.

~~! February 2022 - Terminal City !~~

Alec approached Max warily, shuffling his booted feet against the floor so that she would know he was there. She was sitting on the edge of their apartment building, her feet dangling six stories above the ground. She stared out at Seattle, noting the military trucks that still sat around the perimeter. They had been in here for months and still the military sat outside the fence.

She sighed and spoke, but didn't turn to look at Alec. "I'm fine."

"I know." He spoke softly, moving to stand beside her.

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I thought you could use a friend."

She turned her head slightly so that she could see him as he spoke. He was wearing a pair of black pajama pants, a white t-shirt, and his favorite brown leather jacket that still bore the holes in the left shoulder from the Jam Pony incident. He rubbed his eyes and tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn when he caught her looking at him. He obviously woke up and missed her from their bed.

"Go get some more sleep." She said gently.

"I'd rather be here with you." He replied, reaching out and taking her hand. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand lightly. He tugged on her hand, "Come down here with me. You're making me nervous."

Max chuckled, but moved off of the three foot wall around the roof to stand beside Alec. He sat down, leaning back against the wall and pulled her down to sit between his legs. She rested her back against his chest and sighed contently, feeling his chest gently rise and fall. He wrapped his arms around her waist, inhaling the strawberry scent of her shampoo.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He broke the comfortable silence first.

She sighed before nodding slowly. "It was all my fault. I started having a seizure and the guards saw me. Zack tried to protect me. One of my other brothers, Jack, had a seizure and they took him away and killed him. So, Zack jumped the guards and then Eva joined in. She grabbed a gun and used it to hold off the guards while we escaped. Lydecker shot and killed her though. She's the reason that I don't like guns."

He nodded at this, finally understanding her aversion to his favorite weapon. He hugged her closer to his body, kissing her temple as she took a deep breath and continued.

"Zack got us outside and we split up into groups of two. Jondy and I scaled the fence together but we got separated into the woods and I fell through some thin ice." She shivered, recalling the icy needles that had stabbed her while she was in the freezing water.

Alec pulled his leather jacket off and draped it across her in an effort to stop her trembling. He rested his cheek against the top of her head and whispered, "Then what happened?"

"I hid under the ice for as long as I could. When I thought it was safe, I got out. This woman named Hannah helped me. She saw me beside the road and stopped. She saved my life that night by getting me far away from Gillette, Wyoming. She took me to her house, but she had to leave. She never came back though. I found out later that she tried to get back to me but the area was sealed off and it took her too long."

"Where did you go?" Alec had always been interested in the escape. After being sent to psy-ops because he was a twin of one of the escapees, that he hadn't even known existed, he wanted to know exactly what happened that night. He was always afraid to ask Max about it though because it would bring back painful memories for her. He wanted to protect her from those memories, but this was the anniversary of the escape. He sensed that she needed to talk about it; it was one of the reasons he had come up here.

"I ended up in a foster home with the father from hell. He abused his daughter, Lucy. He abused me. I was just a kid and I didn't know what to do. I could have stopped him, but I couldn't let anyone know who or what I was. Lucy was older than me and she always told me to stay out of the way. She was the first person that I was around away from Manticore that tried to protect me and love me. It was a new feeling, a welcome feeling."

"I love you, Maxie." Alec felt like he should say it although he had said it plenty of times before. It had be hard on her to tell him all this and he wanted her to know that he was there with her.

"I love you too, Alec." She replied, turning to kiss him lightly on the lips. He smiled down at her, silently encouraging her to go on.

"The Pulse hit and Lucy and I hid away from her father. Eventually he found us and started beating Lucy." She paused and Alec could her choked sobs. "I left her there. I ran away and left her there with that man. I should have stayed and helped her."

"Shhhh. It's ok, Max. She always tried to protect you, remember. She was protecting you then too. She was helping you."

"But I was the soldier. I was trained to deal with things like that."

"No!" Alec stated firmly, hooking a finger under her chin and bringing her head up so that she was looking at him. "Don't say that, Max! You were a child. You didn't know what to do. You were in an entirely different world and you didn't know what to do. Don't beat yourself up for making the decision that you did."

Tears filled her eyes again and she leaned back into Alec's arms, sobbing again. He held her and stroked her hair. Several minutes later, her sobs turned into hiccups and she moved away from his chest to look up to meet his concerned hazel gaze.

"Please, don't regret the decisions you made as a child, Max. Ever." He whispered, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. "We've all made decisions that we don't like. It's a fact of life. Regret can only lead to heartache."

She smiled at him, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "I don't know what I would do without you."

"You'll never have to find out." He promised, capturing her lips in a tender kiss.

"I love you, Smart Alec."

"Feeling's mutual, Darlin'. Now, let's go to bed. It's cold up here!" He allowed his teeth to chatter to emphasize his playful statement. He grinned at her, gathering her in his arms and heading towards the stairs that led down to their apartment.

"I can walk you know." She laughed softly as he balanced her carefully while trying to open the door.

"I know." He replied simply. They disappeared into the building, one more burden lifted away from them.


	4. The Loss of a Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec's nightmares lead to the revealation of a mission gone wrong.

~~! Terminal City !~~

Alec's eyes snapped open and Max could see the fear and anguish raging in their hazel depths. He was still stuck in his nightmare and she knew better than to call attention to herself. She waited patiently for his mind to realize that he was safe with her and not in some hellhole somewhere with who knows what happening to him.

Gradually, Alec's breathing calmed and his eyes focused on the cracked ceiling of his apartment. His and Max's apartment, he reminded himself. She had officially moved in a couple of weeks ago, not long after their talk about the ‘09 escape.

Turning his head, he found her intense brown gaze boring into him. "Don't you ever sleep?" he asked quietly.

She shrugged, looking down to where her fingers were tracing non-descript shapes on his bare abdomen.

He sighed and kissed the top of her head. "Go ahead and ask."

"No reason to," she said, turning over with her back to him. "You wouldn't answer me if I did," she tossed over her shoulder.

"Maxie," Alec said, frustration coloring his voice.

When she failed to answer him, he turned over and spooned her, pulling her closer to his own body.

She struggled against his strong arms for a moment, but it was obvious that it was just for show. She knew that he needed comfort but she was still angry with him for not talking to her. They were doing so well with sharing their secrets until he had started having nightmares. Then he had shut himself off from her, even denying that he was having nightmares for several days.

Alec breathed in her scent as he lay behind her. He'd been having nightmares for a week now, but had adamantly refused to talk about them with anyone. His distraction techniques, namely sex, had failed to work a couple days ago and had led to Max sleeping on the couch the night before. He had managed to talk her back into bed with him, but he still wouldn't talk about what was bothering him.

He was silent for so long that Max thought he had gone back to sleep. She was about to ease away from him and go get something to drink when he started to speak.

"It was dark," he said, startling her even though his voice was quiet. "I was the youngest team member, but not the most inexperienced one. I had been in the field before, a lot. I had seen the death and destruction that Manticore classes couldn't prepare you for no matter how many tapes they forced us to watch."

Max turned slowly in his arms and he rolled onto his back. She threw her leg over both of his and hugged him to her as tightly as she could.

"There were five of us deployed for a mission that only needed two. But they were trying to train as many X5s as they could for field work, so they made us take three extra guys."

He sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. Max reached up and gently took his hand in hers and pulled it away from his face. She laced their fingers together and lay their hands across his stomach. He smiled faintly as her thumb started to slowly rub his. She knew exactly how to comfort him and he loved her for it even more than he could tell her.

"The mission was simple. Get into a well-known, heavily guarded genetics lab and copy the relevant information from their computer database. Destruction of the facility was optional, but strongly recommended. The problem came when one of the inexperienced X5s tripped the silent alarm. His name was Buddy, because he was friends with everyone even though he was the runt of the litter basically. I tried to watch out for him, but it was hard. He either didn't know about the alarm, or didn't want to tell us. The guards were on top of us before anyone else realized what had happened and then the shooting started. Three men, including Buddy, all died before the files were finished downloading. I happen to have taken cover near the computer terminal. The remaining team member, my commanding officer, signed for me to get the info and get out. He had other plans."

Alec took a deep, shuddering breath, staring at a specific crack in the ceiling that reminded him distantly of the Nile River. He was lost in the memories of what had happened though. The three men that had died had all been standing near him when they'd been shot. He'd watched the Buddy take his last gurgling breath and his eyes slip slowly shut.

"What happened then?" Max whispered, once he had been quiet for several minutes. She wanted him to finish the story quickly; she felt it would be better for him to do so.

"Uh," he muttered as her words brought him back to the present. "There was a back door left pretty much unguarded. I got away and was waiting at the rendevous point when I saw the entire building go up in flames. "

Max's eyes widened and she hugged him even tighter, nuzzling his neck as she felt his breathing and heart rate speed up again.

"Since the mission was actually accomplished, it was deemed a success, but the loss was great and I was put through Psy-Ops, again." He took a shuddering breath. "God, I hated that place."

"Shhh," Max said, sitting up and pulling his head into her lap. She bent over him, rubbing his back with one hand and running her fingers through his hair with the other. "Psy-Ops is gone. Manticore is gone."

Alec nodded, whispering, "Thank you."

"For what?" She asked, laying a gentle kiss on his forehead.

"Setting me free. Loving me. Making me fall in love with you." He shrugged, bringing a hand up behind her head and pulling her lips down to his, giving her a deep kiss.

"Well, in that case," she laughed as his tongue probed her lips, "you're welcome."

"Love you Maxie," he said, pulling away from the kiss and snuggling into her lap.

"Love you too, Alec," she replied, rubbing his back as he drifted into a peaceful slumber for once. She continued to watch over him all night, keeping his nightmares at bay with her vigil. She was glad that he had finally opened up to her, released yet another burden. But she couldn't help but wonder how many he had sealed away inside.


	5. The Loss of Each Other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Infidelity leads to life changes.

~~! Terminal City - Max and Alec's Apartment !~~

"Alec," Max's voice was halting, as if she wasn't sure of what she was saying. "Alec, I love you."

His dark silhouette paused in the doorway, but didn't turn. It took a moment for his deep voice, full of pain and anger and disappointment, to reach her sensitive ears.

"You don't know what love is."

The words cut her deeply and Max lashed out like she always did. Her tone turned to one of hatred and she retorted sharply.

"And you do?"

Alec winced, his head lowering though he still did not move from the doorway. He should have expected that, should have known that it was coming. But he didn't think that Max would go there. Not after all that they had shared, all the burdens they'd helped each other to lessen.

"Alec, I'm sorry," Max hastily said, taking a step toward him when he remained silent.

And in the instant, as he heard her footfall, he whipped around, stilling her with his dark gaze. "No!" His voice boomed through the small room as he released the bag that he'd been holding and stabbed a finger at her. "You don't get to say sorry. You don't get to throw accusations. You don't get to do anything! You cheated on me, remember?"

"And I said that I was sorry!" She exclaimed, tears springing to her eyes. She had known that it would hurt him, but, at the time, she hadn't cared. She'd wanted one thing: to know what it felt like to be with Logan. Alec had been with other girls, she'd reasoned when she'd gone to Eyes Only; why should she just be stuck with plain old X5-494? She had, of course, been mad at Alec about something stupid that she couldn't even remember now. But the damage was done, and X5-494 was angrier that she'd ever seen him before.

"Sorry doesn't cut it, 452." The use of her designation made her grimace and he smiled, slowly, grimly, wryly. And at that moment, for the first time in Max's memory, he looked like Ben.

"What's the matter?" Alec said, as she merely stood and gaped at him as if he'd just grown a second head. "Can you not deny it any longer?"

"I'm not..." she trailed off, the feral glint in his eyes inspiring a fear that she had never known before. "What are you doing, Alec? Where are you going?"

He shrugged his shoulders and bent to retrieve his bag.

"Alec! Alec, promise me that you won't hurt him." Max ran forward and grabbed his shoulder, intending to stop him.

However, Alec was no longer going to be pushed around by Max. He spun, batting away her hand and throwing her against the wall in the same motion. His forearm now pressed painfully against her neck, holding her in place. Her face was at the same height as his now and he leaned close, invading her space, making her listen.

"Let's get something straight right now," his voice was cold and calculated. "You do not touch me. You do not speak to me. You do not look at me. In fact, if you want to run off to some cabin the woods with your old flame, then be my fucking guest. I would prefer it actually."

He released her suddenly and she dropped the few inches to the floor. Her hands immediately clutched her neck, but she didn't make a sound.

"I'm giving you a week to clear your stuff out of here. If anything is left when I get back, I'm burning it. Any questions?" He didn't give her time to answer as he picked up his bag and headed for the door. "Good bye, 452."

She remained silent, watching the door even after he was gone. She had screwed up badly this time. And she had just lost the one man that she'd ever truly loved.

Alec walked purposefully through Terminal City, heading north. He had to get out of Seattle for a few days but the only place that he could go was Canada. His face was plastered all over the United States and he couldn't run the risk of getting caught. Terminal City still needed him. Max as leader had been a joke. She knew nothing about it. Alec had been the leader the whole time, but before, he'd had no trouble letting Max be the facade for it. Now, however, it was time to step up and be the soldier that he was bred to be.

He shook his head and laughed bitterly as he neared the fence. Without even a running start, he smoothly leaped the fence, needing the display of supremacy at that particular moment in time. She'd cheated on him with an Ordinary, with Logan nonetheless. That hurt. More than it should have. More than it would have if it had been some random X5. More than it would have if it had been Mole.

Where had he gone wrong? He'd shared his innermost thoughts and feelings and pain with her. Rachel and his unit and Biggs and his times at Manticore had been the subjects of his conversations with her. There were things that he'd never been able to speak of since they'd happened and it had felt good to share them with her. Now, he just felt vulnerable. She knew too much about him and he shuddered at that. He should have known better than to trust her with such things.

But she'd shared the same kinds of things with him. Things about her unit and her friends and the gang that she'd been a part of in LA. No matter how mad he was at her now or however mad he'd be in the future, he knew that he wouldn't, couldn't, tell those things to anyone else. They were her secrets and he hoped that she would feel the same way about his.

How could he have been so stupid as to trust her? She was a traitor...it was in her genetic make-up. Just like it had been in Ben's. But Manticore had done a lot to make sure that he didn't carry that gene. He would never have cheated on Max. He would never have thought of it. He had been in lov...NO! He stopped himself. He wasn't going to think it. She wasn't worth it. Not anymore.

Max stood in the window of her apartment watching Alec leave until he had faded into the shadows a few blocks away. She had made a mistake. A horrible mistake. One that she could not take back now, no matter how hard she tried. She'd thrown away the best thing in her life for nothing, for a mediocre lay and a momentary satisfaction of getting Alec back for something petty to begin with.

Choking back a sob, she gathered her things and packed her bags. As she worked, she thought about all the good times that she'd spent with Alec and all the conversations that they'd had. She'd told him so many things that she'd never told anyone before and she hoped against hope that he would never speak of those things again. They were some of her deepest darkest secrets and she didn't want them becoming common knowledge. On the other hand, Alec had imparted a lot of information to her as well. However, the way that she saw it, the ball was in his court. As long as he stayed quiet, so would she.

Taking one last look at the apartment, and at the life that she had thrown away like yesterday's underwear, she turned her back and walked away.

When Alec returned, exactly a week later, no one had heard from Max and no one knew where she had gone. Though Alec was pretty sure that a certain underground cyber-journalist was a good place to start looking should the need arise. Not that it ever would. He would make certain of that.

~The End


End file.
